Generally speaking, archery bow manufacturers do not incorporate built-in (permanently-attached) accessory devices such as bow sights, quivers, etc., since there is a wide variety of such devices available in the after-market and archers have an equally wide variety of different preferences, likes, and dislikes for specific different accessory types and styles. Consequently, bow manufacturers usually go no further than providing a mounting pad (essentially, a pattern of tapped mounting holes located in a particular location and position on the bow) which is basically of a standardized configuration, and it is left to the individual archer to obtain and suitably mount his own preference in accessory devices. For the most part, accessory manufacturers are not the same companies as those which manufacture archery bows, and there are understandably a much larger number of accessory manufacturers than there are bow manufacturers. Nonetheless, a certain amount of standardization has become established in the mounting means for the different bow accessories, at least with respect to bow sights, which typically are manufactured with a mounting flange or bracket having at least one flat side to rest flush against the mounting pad provided by the bow manufacturer, and with an array of mounting apertures disposed in the same positions as the tapped holes provided by the bow manufacturer.
Accordingly, the typical procedure for the consumer who has purchased a new archery bow is to select his preferred bow sight and attach it to the bow himself, in a semi-permanent manner, usually with mounting screws which are firmly tightened to assure a secure attachment of the apparatus. Thus, in order to remove or change the bow sight, the archer typically returns to his workbench, since tools are required and the task necessitates at least a moderate expenditure of time. This obviously precludes any rapid changing of the bow sight in the field, as might for example be desired while hunting, when the hunter moves to a tree mount or other elevated position, in which the hunter normally prefers a different type of sight. Also, the semi-permanently, or quasi-permanently affixed sight is cumbersome and poses a problem when carrying the bow in a case, since the cases are not usually adapted to fit the combined bow and sight.
A further limitation and undesirable feature typically found in archery is the absence of a convenient and adaptive mounting means for other accessory devices such as bow-mounted quivers, fishing reels (as used in bow fishing), cable guards, and the like. Very often, "homemade" mounting arrangements are utilized, in which the archer himself, or a selected artisan, must actually drill new holes into the bow and make other such permanent changes in the bow, for securing screws, fasteners, etc., to the bow. Obviously, such changes are not reversible in nature and tend to disfigure the bow, as well as perhaps weakening it; in addition, such an approach does not lend itself to modification or adaptation in the event other and different accessory devices are desired to be mounted upon the bow in the future.